


gender identity not otherwise specified

by sora_grey



Category: The Realm of Possibility - David Levithan
Genre: Character Analysis, Gender Identity, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, Non-binary character, Notfic, Other, Rare Fandoms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-01
Updated: 2019-10-01
Packaged: 2020-11-08 22:27:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20843021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sora_grey/pseuds/sora_grey
Summary: Jamie and the concept of gender identity.(Or—I am sure as hell that one of the main characters in a very small fandom is non-binary and proceeds to write a brief discourse about it.)





	gender identity not otherwise specified

**Author's Note:**

> Will anyone ever read this? Not bloody likely.
> 
> But I spent some time thinking about this theory and needed to get it outta my head.

* * *

Jamie is [non-](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/non-binary_gender)[binary.](https://gender.wikia.org/wiki/non-binary)

That’s what I think, therefore I’ll refer to Jamie with the pronouns _they/them_ throughout this discourse. This non-binary theory, however, _contradicts_ the information seen on [the TRoP wiki page,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Realm_of_Possibility_\(novel\)) which _clearly_ lists Jamie as Zack’s _brother._ Anyway, at the beginning of Jamie’s central story _(the day)_, there’s the scene where they are eating breakfast with Zack. While _attempting to be a good sibling,_ they decide to ask Zack about his girlfriend Anne.

Rather than having Jamie declare themself as either _sister_ or _brother,_ both of which state specific roles between _female_ and _male,_ they instead decide to use the gender-neutral term _sibling,_ which is an unexpected word choice. By describing themself this way, Jamie is choosing _not_ to be defined by a specific identity.

Having read _the day_ (which is both told _in first-person_ and also the _only_ story where Jamie makes an _actual_ appearance), there is no concrete evidence that Jamie is acknowledged as a _boy._ They are _not_ addressed by the pronouns used for _males_ from the people they interact with, so I’m a little confused. Is Jamie’s gender identity as a _male_ supposed to be _obvious?_ If that’s the case, then I must be hella dense because _I’m just not seeing it._

This gender ambiguity is further evidenced by Jamie’s very _name,_ which is gender-neutral as well. _Jamie_ is a name in its own right, which could easily belong to _any person_ of _any gender_ (female, male, _and_ non-binary). _Jamie_ is also a nickname for _James,_ which is considered a _masculine_ name.

By contrast, the other characters have names that are either conventionally _feminine_ (like Anne) or _masculine_ (like Zack).

So maybe having a non-binary character is wishful thinking on my part. Maybe I’m just projecting on what I _want to see._ But the fact of the matter is this: the rest of the characters definitely fall into the binary roles of either _female_ or _male,_ with the aforementioned characters using gender-specific words (like _sister_ and _brother_) and pronouns _(she/her, he/him)_ in relation to other people.

I guess in the long run, the gender identity Jamie is _seen as_ is ultimately up to the reader’s interpretation. For me, that means sticking with non-binary Jamie because TRoP was published a decade and a half ago, and personally, I like the idea that there might have been an early example of gender diversity (as in, something other than _female_ or _male_) in young adult literature as far back as 2004.


End file.
